S&P 500 positive for year as stocks rise for 3rd day in row: stock market live blog recap

April 16, 2014, 10:38 AM ET

We’re live blogging all the action in stocks right here. For a rundown of what happened before the bell, check out Indications. A concise rundown of the regular trading session can be found in Market Snapshot.

Stocks surged after the opening bell, setting up what could be a third day of gains after last week’s nasty pullback. Dow industrials were up triple digits, while Yahoo Inc. led the S&P 500 after reporting upbeat earnings late Tuesday.

Moelis late Tuesday priced 6.5 million shares at $25 a share, raising $162.5 million. In an earlier regulatory filing, the company had said it expected to offer 7.3 million shares for $26 to $29 each. The firm is headed by dealmaker Ken Moelis (pictured). Photo credit: Bloomberg

Industrial production data out right before the open is helping sentiment. MarketWatch’s Steve Goldstein says output in March largely skirted the polar vortex that stymied growth in other parts of the economy. IP rose 0.7%, above the 0.5% forecast by economists, largely thanks to mining and utilities.

The increase set the stage for a stronger Q2 GDP, write Barclays economists.

Bank of American shares are down 3.2% after the company swung to a $276 million loss in the first quarter. That’s largely due to $6 billion in legal charges tied to a legal settlement.

MarketWatch’s David Weidner points out that while the bank beat estimates when stripping out those one-time charges, the problem is that such one-time charges have become all too frequent an event. And that’s probably not going to soon change That makes it difficult to tell whether the bank’s current position reflects the vision of CEO Brian Moynihan (pictured) or is the product of his predecessor, Weidner says.

Industrial production in March beat expectations by far and given that February numbers were revised upward, the headline numbers were good. However, these numbers should be treated with cautions, because, while they are better than expected, they are not spectacular, as the economy is still improving slowly.

Housing numbers were soft and at this point, still difficult to say if it’s weather related or that we hit a soft patch in the housing market.

Earnings have been good so far, but companies are beating much lowered expectations.

Shares of Texas Instruments and other chipmakers fell sharply on Wednesday as Wall Street reacted to downbeat reports from two companies that appear to signal slower-than-anticipated growth in the semiconductor market.

In the bigger picture, however, there’s been a tempering of concern toward emerging-market assets. Just 13% of respondents were underweight EM stocks in April compared with 31% in March, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s latest fund-manager survey. And the percent of people who think emerging markets are undervalued is at the highest level ever, the survey showed.

A “more explicit mention of the Canadian dollar was introduced in the statement – giving the statement a dovish tone,” said Richard Cochinos of Citi in a note.

“Overall the bank faces an environment of lower growth and is dependent on exports and investment, while at the same time inflationary pressures are building. Our interpretation is that the statement is an attempt verbally engineer a weaker CAD, however inflation is binding force,” he added.

Amid Wednesday’s rally, the best-performing sector of the S&P 500 index
/quotes/zigman/3870025/realtimeSPX is … drum-roll please … the materials sector, which is up 1.4% on the day. All but two stocks are in the green.

If you’ve been following the Detroit bankruptcy case closely, you may have heard about a number of recent deals that are appeasing the municipal bond market, as well as retirees. So you think: maybe Detroit will get through this thing and eventually revive its former glory. And in that case, it follows that you want some prime real estate south of 8-mile road!

Not so fast. If you’re thinking about trying to flip houses in Detroit (some of which are being auctioned off at prices starting at $1,000) read this piece by MarketWatch’s Daniel Goldstein that shows just how hard it is to make money off of these types of properties.

In support of Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen’s optimism on the U.S. economy, The Fed’s Beige Book, which collects anecdotal evidence, showed that the economy saw “modest to moderate” improvement in 10 out of 12 Fed districts.

Only the Cleveland and St. Louis regions saw a decline in economic activity, according to the report.

Stocks remained at their pre-Beige Book levels with the Dow industrials up 0.7%, the S&P 500 up 0.7%, and the Nasdaq up 0.7%.

General Electric Co is scheduled to release its first-quarter results on Thursday at 6:30 Eastern. Shares in the company are up 0.9% at last check, but they severely under-performed the broader market year-to-date – with a 7% loss.

In case you missed it, upbeat earnings reports and an encouraging reading on industrial production are getting much of the credit for today’s gains.

Here’s what Colin Cieszynski of CMC Markets wrote in a note this afternoon:

“Stocks have benefitted from a number of tailwinds including positive earnings reports from Yahoo/Alibaba, Intel and others along with positive economic data from around the world including US industrial production, UK employment and Chinese GDP.”

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